Conceptual Selves

To me, CMaps are a new tool, and a useful one. While exploring the CMap program, it was largely user-friendly and easy to navigate; I surprised at the ease with which even a novice could maneuver and use the program. More importantly, however, the CMap program allowed me to quickly and easily create a conceptual map that visually depicted the relationship between my favorite foods. I am happy to have learned about this new tool, as it can come in handy in preparing for and writing papers. I'm sure I will use it in the future.

The auto-summarize and word filter features available in Microsoft Office were also new discoveries for me. I used both on my thesis, a lovely 61 page document about African American and Latino race relations. The auto-summarize feature did better than I expected, as it seemed to pick up on key words and sentences based upon their frequency of appearance and relative positioning within the paper, respectively. Although the auto-summarize feature did not clearly explain or put together all parts of my paper, it did provide a rough overview of the main topics. This feature is not suitable for rigorous academic work, but it can be handy in creating quick estimates.

Furthermore, the word filter features were impressive. They pick up on the key words and note the number of times each word appears in the paper. This can also be a helpful feature in determining the main points of an article.

All in all, these tools are helpful in representing, summarizing, and understanding articles and main points.